This invention is concerned with distributing gobs in a glassware manufacturing machine and in particular with a gob distributor for a glassware manufacturing machine of the individual section type and with a method of distributing gobs in such a machine.
A glassware manufacturing machine of the individual section type comprises a plurality of individual glass moulding units called "sections". Each section can be arranged to operate in either a single gob mode, or in double, triple or, even, quadruple mode in which one, two, three or, even, four articles are moulded simultaneously. Each section has a parison mould for each article to be moulded simultaneously, the parison mould being used to mould a gob of molten glass into a parison which is then transferred to a blow mould of the section in which the parison is blown into a completed article. The sections of the machine, there are commonly 6, 8 or 10, are all mounted on a common frame and gobs of molten glass are delivered to the sections in turn by a common gob distributor which delivers the required number of gobs to the section simultaneously. The sections work in timed relationship to one another starting in the order in which they receive gobs from the distributor.
A conventional gob distributor comprises one or more gob-directing scoops depending on which mode the sections are operating. Each scoop is in the form of a trough which is curved in a vertical plane and has an upper end vertically beneath an orifice of a feeder from which gobs of molten glass are released to fall into the scoop. The scoop has a lower end arranged to be aligned with any of a number of gob guides, one for each section, which lead to the sections so that the scoop delivers the gob to the guide. The lower end of the scoop is aligned with guides of different sections, so that successive gobs are delivered to different sections, by turning the scoop about a vertical axis passing through its upper end by means of turning means of the distributor. The turning means comprises an externally-toothed ring-shaped gear on which the scoop is mounted with the scoop passing through the gear, the gear being arranged to turn about the aforementioned vertical axis. The turning means also comprises a rack having teeth which mesh with teeth of gears of each scoop. The rack is spring-urged against a constantly-rotating cam which moves the rack back and forth to turn the gears and therefore the scoops in a selected manner. Thus, if there are six sections, the rack brings each scoop to rest in six orientations which correspond to delivering gobs to the six sections in timed relationship with the fall of gobs from the orifice.
In the conventional gob distributor described above, a single scoop must swing through large arcs between the arrival of successive gobs, e.g. in a six section machine the scoop will have to swing through the width of 3 sections at times as can be seen from a conventional "firing order" which is 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2 where the sections are numbered from one end of the machine. This requires that the distributor is bulky having long scoops and a long rack. Because of this bulk, the distributor is expensive and is difficult to move both to align it with the feeder orifice or to remove it from such alignment in the event of an emergency stop situation. This disadvantage becomes more acute if the number of sections is increased.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gob distributor which is less bulky than the conventional distributor described above.